Above Us Only Sky, 1–27 June, Camden Public Library
In the spirit of “UMVA Members and Friends,” three UMVA member artists, Mary Brooking of Westbrook, Jane Gilbert of Orland and Key West, and Deb Vendetti of South Hope, along with invited guest Dee Peppe of Rockland, will exhibit work at the Camden Public Library, 55 Main Street for the month of June, with a reception for the artists on 1 June, 2-4 p.m.
The exhibition’s title, Above Us Only Sky, was inspired by the varying qualities of light while on Monhegan Island as well as images collected in other locations.
Mary Brooking uses many layers of paint, frequently obliterating certain elements as the paintings progress, “challenging myself always to distill and reduce my original reaction to its exact essence and nothing more, my paintings are spaces meant to test the balance between reality and abstraction.”
Jane Gilbert, Late Afternoon, acrylic.
After a career as an art therapist and a fine art photographer, Jane Gilbert returned to her first love, painting, and now paints full time in Key West and Maine. “For about twenty years, I’ve been meeting my friend and fellow artist Deb Vendetti on Monhegan Island for a week of painting, photographing, and simply enjoying nature. In recent years, we’ve been joined by other artists, and just last summer were able to work from the sweeping panoramas of the Baldwin Cottage.”
Dee Peppe, Monhegan Light, photograph.
Invited guest and UMVA “friend,” photographer Dee Peppe will exhibit images that are inspired by the color of light after sunset, including both natural and artificial lights. Peppe is a longtime local, fine-art photographer and professor at various Maine colleges. She has led photographic travel workshops to France, Belize, and Guatemala and has been teaching photography in the workshop format since 1990.
Deb Vendetti, Spectral Echo, photograph.
Deb Vendetti, who organized this exhibition remarks, “The importance of quiet time, in a supported and unstructured format, in the fellowship of other artists, immersing oneself in a place, those are the moments of grace when one is removed from distraction and invited to enter the dialog.”
Image at top: Mary Brooking, Semi-Precious, acrylic.